


The Spark

by CountDorku



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Action & Romance, Colonialism, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Like just a LITTLE bit, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Nice Things Happen To Scorpia Because She Deserves Them, Not Beta Read, Reunions, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Season 4 Spoilers, like all the spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21544138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountDorku/pseuds/CountDorku
Summary: While visiting Plumeria, Scorpia begins to realise what she's lost...and what she's gained.Contains season 4 spoilers. Like, a lot of season 4 spoilers. You probably shouldn't read this fic unless you have watched season 4.
Relationships: Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 128





	The Spark

It was weird changing sides, Scorpia mused as she pulled on the new garments. It was _good_ – not just because they’d rescued Entrapta, although that was nice – but it was weird.

Take clothes, for example. Apart from Princess Prom, she’d never had to think about what to wear: she wore the uniform. But now that she knew, truly, what that uniform meant, what it had made her into, how much it, _she_ , had hurt her new friends…she couldn’t wear it again.

So she’d gotten some new clothes made for her stay in Plumeria. It felt like making a clean break – like she was a different person to the one who’d tried to destroy Frosta’s castle at Princess Prom. Like she’d never tried to throw Bow into a running engine or delivered Glimmer into Shadow Weaver’s tortures or betrayed Entrapta to the tender mercies of Beast Island. She could pretend, for a few minutes, that the old Scorpia, the blindly loyal agent of the Horde, was someone else.

Besides, Plumeria was pleasantly warm, and while she’d never spent much time showing off her midsection before, she’d always thought her abs were one of her best features.

Plumeria was the one place she really felt welcome. At Bright Moon, they tried, but she’d gone on a mission with the queen and come back without her – people couldn’t help but be a little suspicious. Dryl and Salineas were still occupied – Force Captain Octavia was running the latter like her own kingdom now – and the Fright Zone was _re_ -occupied, Hordak’s corroding towers giving way to a fortress of gleaming, antiseptic white. The Kingdom of Snows, well, Frosta was trying, but her little buddy wasn’t the only one to have held a grudge over her stunt at Princess Prom.

Still, if there was only one place she could be welcomed, at least it was the most beautiful one. She was even starting to adapt to the cuisine; two decades of Horde ration bars had left her with a bit of an uphill climb to get used to actual food. (She’d heard Adora had gotten used to it really quickly. She kind of envied that.)

She emerged from the tent to find Perfuma waiting there, smiling softly, wearing the pink dress that seemed to be her favourite. They’d seen off some True Horde scouts the previous day, and since that would hopefully buy them some time to themselves, the princess wanted to show her something.

Perfuma…puzzled Scorpia. It was a _good_ kind of puzzlement! But she was still puzzled. The princess of Plumeria had swiftly taken Scorpia under her wing after the coming of the True Horde, and seemed to want to spend as much time with her as possible. She’d taught Scorpia to meditate, listened to her rambling, even encouraged her to keep drawing. It was like hanging out with Entrapta, only…better, somehow.

More than that, though, Scorpia felt _at home_ around Perfuma. Like nothing _really_ bad could happen to her or Perfuma as long as they were near each other.

Like as long as they were together, she was healing.

* * *

Perfuma led her to the Heart-Blossom, and moved some leaves out of the way, displaying a sequence of markings. As she looked closer, she recognised-

“She-Ra,” she said, turning that thought over in her mind. She’d disliked Adora greatly for so long, only seeing her as Catra’s betrayer, yet someone Catra obsessed over anyway. She knew better now, at least; Catra had betrayed herself. She’d chosen to wallow in her pain and lash out, and there had been nothing Scorpia could do.

“These carvings are at least a thousand years old,” said Perfuma proudly.

As she stared at the tiny figures carved into the wood, a hollow feeling settled into Scorpia’s stomach as everything she’d never dealt with, everything she’d never even realised she _had_ to deal with, came home to roost at once. She sank to her knees, her body no longer able to hold her up, and distantly realised that she was weeping uncontrollably.

She felt Perfuma’s long, slender arms wrap around her, and her head came to rest on the princess’s shoulder, her tears soaking into the shoulder of the pink dress. She wasn’t used to being the one receiving the hug instead of giving it.

It was nice, though.

* * *

Scorpia held the teacup gingerly. Part of the salvage from the Horde camp Perfuma and Adora had levelled had been a load of metal Horde supplies, including plates, cups and bowls, and the Plumerians had claimed some as salvage rather than leaving it to rust. Ordinarily they were used for transporting water or otherwise keeping Plumeria beautiful, but with Scorpia’s visit, those that could be hastily cleaned up had been, and now they were, again, in use for a child of the Horde.

Once, she knew, she’d have been…well, angry was the wrong word. It was rare for Scorpia to get angry. But she wouldn’t have been happy to know that a Horde camp had been razed. Now, it was a thing of joy. Not just because it meant she could drink Perfuma’s herbal tea without smashing the cup, but also because if Adora hadn’t come here…Perfuma might be dead now. They’d never have met.

She’d come this close to losing one of her best friends, and she’d never have known what she missed.

“I’m sorry about your dress,” she said, deciding that the tea was probably too hot to drink right this second.

Perfuma set the kettle back on the campfire and asked, “Do you want to talk about something?”

Scorpia inhaled the steam from the mug. She was beginning to learn what all of the smells mingling in Perfuma’s tea actually were, but she couldn’t hazard a guess at what they did. “I just…you said you’d had those carvings at least a thousand years. You knew their stories well enough that you knew who She-Ra was, almost before Adora knew herself.” Perfuma nodded, clearly trying very hard to look more understanding and less confused. “I don’t have anything like that, Perfuma. Hordak took everything from us, and it wasn’t until I left, until I joined the Alliance, that I realised how much that was.” She took a sip; definitely still too hot. “I know my granddad ‘allied’ with the Horde, but I don’t know anything else he did. I know I had mothers, and the Horde told me, when I did well, that I’d made them proud – but I haven’t seen them since I was a baby. I barely know anything about them I couldn’t get from a picture. They could be dead, for all I know, and I’d never find out.” She sighed. “Plumeria has stories from a thousand years ago; I don’t even know my mothers’ _names._ And I don’t have any way of finding out.”

Perfuma laid a gentle hand on Scorpia’s shoulder, seemingly not caring about the thorny carapace. “The universe wouldn’t allow something so important to fade. There must be others out there – other scorpions. People who remember parts of your history that the Horde has denied you. Maybe even family you didn’t know you had.”

“And if there aren’t?”

“Then you’ll be the first of a new line.” Scorpia couldn’t take her eyes off Perfuma’s gentle smile. “You’ll _be_ the one that people remember in a thousand years.”

“I don’t know, Perfuma.” Scorpia hated feeling this down, but she couldn’t seem to shake this off – suppressing her doubts had worked for years, but now it was like they were all coming back to haunt her at once. “What if the True Horde win?”

“They won’t.”

“Faith in the universe?”

Perfuma shook her head. “Faith in our friends.”

The forest began to echo to the sound of shouting, and Scorpia leapt to her feet. “Someone’s fighting.”

“The True Horde,” said Perfuma, the smile disappearing from her face. “We’re needed.”

* * *

Scorpia concentrated, and a few insignificant crimson sparks jumped between the two halves of her claw, contributing exactly nothing to the battle.

It was like the Black Garnet’s fire was…distant, somehow. Adora had mentioned that she’d sometimes had trouble using her powers due to her emotional state. That was worrisome; the Black Garnet was the one thing from her past that they could no longer take away from her, so if the sense of loss that had permeated Scorpia since her breakdown was adding to the distance, that could be a problem.

Or worse, what if the forces that occupied the Fright Zone had found some way to wrest control of the Black Garnet from her?

Suddenly, Perfuma screamed, and red lightning lashed from Scorpia’s claw, striking the closest True Horde trooper and leaving him slumped in a heap.

_There_ it was.

She launched herself toward Perfuma’s voice, hurling a True Horde soldier aside, then another. Through the clash of battle, she saw the princess slumped over, the electrical shock from a stun prod still coursing through her body.

More troops swarmed in, and while Scorpia’s strength and the power of the Black Garnet gave her an edge, she couldn’t force her way through. She stumbled, and the True Horde seized the opportunity, barely giving her a second to react as they tried to crush her under the press of bodies.

A fork of crimson lightning split the sky and allowed her to stand again, but it was too late. When Scorpia forced herself to her feet, Perfuma was gone.

* * *

Scorpia picked her way through the forest, heading for the old Horde camp.

The True Horde had settled their camp on the rubble…although calling it a “camp” was like calling the Heart-Blossom a “shrub” or Bright Moon a “house”. It was more like a deployable city, heavily defended and thronging with troops. She wouldn’t want to lead an army against it.

Luckily, she didn’t need one. This wasn’t a stealth mission, exactly, but a lot of it was based on only doing the fighting inside the camp; the gun emplacements didn’t look like they had that good a field of movement.

* * *

K-153-Beta leaned over to check the fallen trooper’s equipment. “Damaged. He’s not a defect; someone did this. Step up patrols-”

There was a thud from behind him, followed by a clatter, and before K-153-Beta could draw his weapon, a massive force appeared from nowhere, pressing his head into the gleaming white-green surface of the building with the unrelenting force of an avalanche.

“Where is she?” growled a female voice in his ear, and K-153-Beta responded in the only way he knew how.

“Intruder in the camp! Intruder in-”

Scorpia slammed him into the wall, hard enough to crack the alien material, and took a deep breath as he slumped to the ground. Of course, these were Horde Prime’s soldiers. They’d never talk; most of them barely counted as having minds of their own.

That just left logic. The prison probably wasn’t too close to the edge, at least not the Plumerian edge; it’d be somewhere they could guard it in the event of an attack, like the one she was now launching. Probably somewhere reasonably central-

The hurrying of feet told her that sneaking to her destination was no longer viable.

That was okay. She wanted to do something else today anyway.

* * *

Scorpia sank to one knee as the stun prod caught her full in the side. Downside to showing off your abs: people with electrified sticks can hit your abs. Bravery, strength, loyalty, and great hugs were all great things to have, but at this point four-hundred-to-one numerical superiority was proving to be the deciding factor.

She took another hit and grunted in pain. Maybe this was it. The last of the Royal Scorpion Family, just about to end up in Horde Prime’s cells. She’d get to see Glimmer again, hopefully; he couldn’t have _that_ many cells. Maybe find out where Catra went-

No. She refused to fall here. She was going to get Perfuma out of her cell, and they were going to get out of this dump and go home, whatever that meant right now.

The power of the Black Garnet surged through her, and the storm began.

* * *

Perfuma sat upright in her cell as she heard the song of war draw closer. The instrumental was the crackle of lightning and the screaming of wounded clones; the percussion was the boom of thunder and the ring of metal against metal.

That sounded like Scorpia.

She’d tried to reach into the earth and shape the plants to help her escape, but the metal of the floor was interfering with her power. Even the smallest hole could have given her an opportunity, but there was nothing to be found.

Conduits in the walls of the building began to explode as power surged through them: one, two, three. The lights blew, showering her with sparks and fragments of plastic; no major harm, although her dress was a little scorched.

A heavy weight hit the exterior door, then again. This was followed by the sound of tearing metal, and the battered, dented door was ripped free of its housing. The avatar of the storm stepped through, her eyes blazing with magenta light, electricity thrumming along her claws.

It was possibly the most beautiful thing Perfuma had ever seen.

The guards lasted mere seconds before Scorpia’s wrath, and then she turned her attention to Perfuma’s cell. The door didn’t last any longer than the guards had.

Without waiting for the lightning to die down, Perfuma dashed forward to Scorpia, pulling their lips together. It was electric – literally. The sparks cascading from Scorpia’s body tingled on Perfuma’s skin and crackled through her hair.

Perfuma wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

* * *

When Scorpia opened her eyes, an honest laugh broke free of her chest for what felt like the first time in ages. Perfuma’s hair was floating around her, drifting up with the electrical charge, making her look like she was underwater.

Perfuma released her and reached up, smiling faintly as she played with her hair. “Do you think you can open a hole in the floor?”

Scorpia’s answer was to drop to the ground and strike her claw into the floor, ripping through the surface. “You might wanna, you know, stand back…”

* * *

The True Horde camp shook, like it sat at the epicentre of an earthquake. The forces mustering to rush the containment building staggered at the unexpected movement…

And then a tide of vines burst from the building, two princesses riding atop the verdant wave. Trees broke through the ground, brambles shattered buildings. Anything that endured the fury of nature unchained was struck by a blast of lightning.

The few remaining True Horde soldiers could do nothing but stand and watch as the two headed for Plumeria.

* * *

Back in Plumeria, Scorpia sat in her tent and thought. After their return, Perfuma had disappeared without trace, which Scorpia found a little rude.

She would have _really_ liked to talk about that kiss.

Scorpia had always thought herself a woman of the world. On the other hand, she had to admit that she’d spent several months entirely convinced that her feelings for Catra had been only friendship. It had only been Spinnerella and Netossa showing up and giving her a long, faintly embarrassing talk that had managed to clue her in to what she’d actually wanted from that relationship, at least on a subconscious level.

And hey, maybe she was sort of right about it being a form of friendship? She definitely couldn’t see herself spending her life with anyone she wasn’t friends with.

She wanted a relationship kind of like the one she had with Perfuma, now that she thought about it.

Especially if it involved another kiss.

She got up and headed out to find Perfuma.

* * *

The Princess of Plumeria was in one of her gardens. This one appeared to be devoted to succulents, which Scorpia had gathered had always been one of Perfuma’s sore spots. Still, these were growing nicely.

“Perfuma, I-” She bumped a table, causing one of the pots to topple onto the floor. As she bent to pick it up, her tail knocked another one off. “Oh gosh. I’m sorry. I’m so bad at this-”

A gentle hand fell on her shoulder, and it was like all her anxiousness, all her clumsiness, just drained out of her, leaving only a lingering sensation of peace.

“It’s all right, Scorpia,” said Perfuma. “I know I shouldn’t have surprised you with that kiss. I…would have liked to talk to you more first. Figure out…I don’t know. Figure out if we were an ‘us’.”

“If we were – oh.” Scorpia rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “I…I think I’d like to try being an ‘us’, Perfuma-”

“Princess!” A Salinean runner appeared at the door, apparently unaware or indifferent to what he was interrupting. “A stranger appeared at the gates. She’s…she’s asking for Princess Scorpia, ma’am.”

The two princesses looked at each other, and then Perfuma said, “Then you must usher her in.”

* * *

The stranger was a small woman in late middle age, with white hair, pale skin…

…and the claws and tail of a scorpion.

At the sight of Scorpia, she leaped to her feet, moving as quickly as her legs would carry her to the princesses.

Scorpia’s jaw dropped as she recognised a face she’d seen every day for years, yet not in a long time. That face was older than she knew, more weathered, worn down by years of sorrow…but she would have recognised it in a heartbeat.

“Mother!”

The rest of the world disappeared as they held each other, both weeping openly.

* * *

“Aculea didn’t make it,” said Serka sadly. She was sitting in Scorpia’s lap, as though both of them were afraid that if they ever stopped touching each other, they’d lose each other again. “Losing you…it was the hardest thing in either of our lives, and it hit her worse than me. She’s buried near our cottage, near Elberon.”

“I wanted to find you,” said Scorpia hollowly. “They wouldn’t even tell me your names.”

“And now you know.” Serka patted her daughter tenderly on the cheek. “I’m so, so proud of you, my daughter.”

“I did a lot of bad things, mother.” Scorpia looked at the ground. “I hurt people. Betrayed people. I even betrayed myself.”

“And when you realised you had, did you surrender? Did you accept it as your destiny? No! You tried to make it right.” The older woman smiled slyly. “Also, you seem to have landed on your feet. Your girlfriend is beautiful.”

“She’s not my…Huh. I guess she is? It’s…we’re still figuring it out.”

“You will, Scorpia.” Slowly, reluctantly, Serka slid off Scorpia’s lap and stood. “We’ll talk more tomorrow, my daughter. There is so, so much I have to tell you. But I have journeyed a long way, and I need to rest my old bones. Goodnight, Scorpia.”

“Goodnight…mother.”

* * *

Scorpia and Perfuma sat, looking at the altered sky. The stars were beautiful, even when you knew what they had brought with them.

They weren’t talking. Not because of an argument, or anything; just because they didn’t need to. They were simply enjoying the simplicity of being in each other’s company.

Scorpia felt the weight of Perfuma’s head coming to rest on her arm. It felt…right, somehow.

Tomorrow, no doubt there would be more challenges. Horde Prime wasn’t going to go away just to let them enjoy their new relationship.

But that was tomorrow. Tonight, it was only them, and the sensation of peace.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of the stuff I was actually supposed to be writing because I had most of the plot already filled out.


End file.
